St Brigid's 0-7 St Patrick's 0-6Dublin champions St Brigid's had a narrow escape in the quarter-final of the Leinster club football championship on Saturday when they hung on for a one-point win over St Patrick's in Dundalk.

The Blanchardstown club are favourites to win the provincial title but they struggled against the spirited Louth champions, and after kicking nine first-half wides when playing with a very strong wind the visitors managed only a solitary point in the second half from Raymond Gallagher.

However, St Patrick's also found it difficult to take advantage of the elements and had 10 wides after the restart.

St Brigid's opened up a 0-3 to 0-1 lead after 11 minutes before points from Paddy Keenan and Ray Finnegan brought St Patrick's level.

However, the Dublin team finished the half more strongly with three unanswered points from Ken Darcy, Johnny Noonan and Declan Lally to go in at the break leading 0-6 to 0-3.

St Patrick's made a great start to the second half with two more points from Keenan but the scores dried up after that and Gallagher's effort in the 50th minute left it 0-7 to 0-5. A fine point for St Patrick's from Eamonn Carroll with two minutes remaining ensured an exciting finish but it was St Brigid's who held out to progress to the semi-final.

ST BRIGID'S: P Keane; K Keane, D Cahill, W Finnegan (0-1); G Norton, P Andrews, M Galvin; K Darcy (0-1), J Ward; D Darcy, Rory Gallagher, D Lally (0-2); K Bonnar, Raymond Gallagher (0-2), J Noonan (0-1). Subs: S Quinn for D Darcy, C McGlynn for Noonan.

ST PATRICK'S: S Connor; D White, C Goss, D Finnegan; P Mallon, O Zamboglou, Johnny Holland; Jim Holland, P Keenan (0-4); P Devane, E Carroll (0-1), R Finnegan (0-1); D Connor, D Kirwan, D Murphy. Subs: S White for Murphy, Shane Hynes for Kirwan.

Referee: J Smith (Meath).